


ain't it thrilling

by FunAndWhimsy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, High School AU, kidgemas2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 08:17:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17158505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FunAndWhimsy/pseuds/FunAndWhimsy
Summary: She makes it through, at least, and pops back up to give him a quick thumbs-up before disappearing to enact her evil scheme. Keith takes the opportunity to shake it off, remind himselfagainhe's only got a few months left before he starts at the Garrison and then that's going to be his whole life. Pidge'll be there eventually - based on how hard she's pushing she might somehow beat Hunk and Lance no matter how much younger she is - but that's eventually.





	ain't it thrilling

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Kidgemas, rororoyourship! I hope I did your prompt justice.
> 
> AU where Galaxy Garrison accepts students of college age, not high school, the Kerberos mission left at the same time as it did in canon, and Keith & Pidge have been going to school together, if a few years apart, their whole lives.

Pidge is sitting on the bench when Keith passes the line marking the end of his final lap and slows down to an easy jog. It's easily the weirdest thing about his whole sports as application padding thing - weirder than it turning out he kind of likes being on a team, like maybe his whole lone wolf thing might have a few drawbacks - Pidge turning into someone who waits for him, goes out of her way to stick around through practices. If she'd gotten so into band before Keith joined the football team he's not sure he would have decided to be someone who waits for her.

(That's a lie. But there's half a school year left and then he's doing a summer semester at the Garrison to get a head start. He has to keep some stuff at bay for a little while longer so he doesn't change things just in time for everything to change again.)

Keith jogs for two laps and walks one, runs himself through a handful of haphazard stretches even though he's plenty cooled down, and finally wanders over to Pidge. She's got three books laid out on the bench, and a notebook on her lap she's scribbling in so fast her hand's kind of blurry, and Keith knows better than to ask if it's homework because Pidge always rolls her eyes at him for thinking she might have to work this hard on her homework. 

"Hey," he says.

"Two seconds," she says, scribbles a little faster and then abruptly closes all her books, one by one. "Hey."

"Something cool?"

"Maybe, but it's all theoretical right now," she says, shoving things haphazardly into her backpack. "Dad being in space is really cramping my style, I can't just go dig around all the Garrison labs for spare parts on my own."

Pidge built Keith his laptop out of Garrison junk; it's the ugliest fucking thing but he loves it, even though all his icons are little stylized Pidge heads. And she's got that funky little junk robot who mostly just walks around her house and scares the dog; it's a real shame she's being denied her artistic medium. Keith reaches over and picks up her bassoon case before she can, and for once she doesn't fucking argue. It's a Christmas miracle. She falls into step beside him, and because she's Pidge and he's Keith and they get each other they don't really talk for a while. They've had to talk all day, because for some reason no one else can read their minds, and they're friends for lots of reasons but being able to just be quiet with each other might be the most important.

A little blue sports car zips by - well, mostly. It starts to zip by and then slows down just enough for the driver to shout, "later, nerds," and flip them off. 

"Was that Lance?" Pidge asks.

"Where would Lance get a car that nice?"

"It's Veronica's," Pidge says. "I thought she didn't let him drive it, though."

"Hmm," Keith says. "He's got a car and didn't offer us a ride? We can't just let him get away with that."

"Let's key his car," Pidge says, and Keith laughs not so much because it's funny as because she sounds so serious.

"You just said it's Veronica's."

"Yeah, we key 'Lance' into the side and she thinks he did it and he never gets to borrow her car or maybe be alive ever again."

"I like the way you think," Keith says, "but that'll take too long. We've gotta get in and get out quick, it's a stealth mission."

Pidge hums and narrows her eyes, her classic (and a little bit scary) scheming face. Pidge has more impulse control than Keith does, but not when it comes to brainstorming, and some of the things that have come out of her mouth are terrifying. She's got a real mad scientist vibe and she doesn't just know it, she uses it, because of course the funniest thing in the world to her is when she freaks people out, especially if they've been tricked by her big doe eyes into thinking she's cute and harmless.

Shit, Keith likes her so much.

"You think we can get in and out of his bedroom without being seen?"

"Uh, if we're quick."

"Excellent," Pidge says, and speeds up, all excited by whatever plan she's just come up with. If it involves Lance's room it probably won't get them killed by Veronica, and Pidge probably wouldn't _actually_ do any lasting damage to Lance, and he _did_ call Keith a nerd, so he just shrugs and catches up instead of asking any further questions.

Veronica's place used to be Shiro's, before he moved full-time to on-site officer's quarters, and it's the sort of place someone who spent fewer than eighty hours a week at the Garrison would probably hate because there's no fucking room. Keith's obviously glad Lance's parents let him stay with her so he can go to the high school with the highest rate of Garrison acceptance, because he likes Lance a lot even when he hates him, but he can't fucking imagine sharing a place this small with anyone. Shiro had a treadmill in what's now Lance's bedroom and it took up pretty much all the available space. But that means Lance's bed and desk and dresser are all crammed in, so there's always something under the window when Keith needs to boost Pidge in for...reasons. 

When Keith catches up to her outside Lance's window she's holding up something the size of a big mouse, maybe, or a small rat. More Garrison junk, so it probably either does something cool or just explodes. Keith's pretty sure she wouldn't set off a bomb in Lance's room for a joke. Not on purpose, anyway.

"What's it do?"

"Pretty much nothing," Pidge says. "I was just seeing what I could do with some scraps, so he just kind of scuttles around. But you know if there's something scuttling around in Lance's room - or in his walls, maybe - he'll drive himself crazy looking for it."

"Hell yes," Keith says, and drops to one knee so he can hold his hands out for Pidge to boost off of. She laughs, eyes all sparkling with it, and Keith - no, Keith doesn't really think about anything specific, looking at her, not something that's going to change everything at the worst possible time. He's definitely not thinking about what would happen if he caught her when she went to jump, and kissed her, and went from there. And he's not thinking about it so hard it catches him by surprise when she gets a little running start and hops onto his hands, he definitely doesn't almost drop her instead of launching her through Lance's window. 

She makes it through, at least, and pops back up to give him a quick thumbs-up before disappearing to enact her evil scheme. Keith takes the opportunity to shake it off, remind himself _again_ he's only got a few months left before he starts at the Garrison and then that's going to be his whole life. Pidge'll be there eventually - based on how hard she's pushing she might somehow beat Hunk and Lance no matter how much younger she is - but that's eventually. 

Keith is mostly out of his own head and ready to catch Pidge when she comes back into view in the window and rolls out, but she doesn't need it; she moves silently and lands on the ground with perfect balance. He's taught her so well. 

"Did you get it in the walls?" Keith asks, once they're back on the sidewalk and on their way to Pidge's. 

"Yep. He's gonna go out of his entire mind."

"He'll probably end up crushing your little dude when he finds it."

Pidge shrugs. "It's just scrap."

"I know you. What's its name?"

Pidge laughs. "Spot. Don't worry, I'm prepared to accept his brave sacrifice."

"Just making sure. It's cute how attached you get."

" _You're_ cute," Pidge grumbles, doesn't even bother to put in the effort to pretend it's a real comeback. Keith switches her bassoon to his other hand so he can ruffle her hair; she lazily swats his hand away. For a half-second Keith wonders if he could antagonize her enough she'd just throw down in the street, but they're only a few houses away from hers and he already knows the answer would be yes. "What are you doing for Christmas, with Shiro gone?"

"Uh," Keith says. "Same thing I do when he's here? Get take-out and watch movies all day."

"By yourself?"

Keith laughs a little. "Well I don't think he's coming back from Pluto for that."

He regrets it, the laugh and the comment, when Pidge's face falls a little and he has to watch her try and go neutral again. Right, no one knows better than she does how far away Shiro is right now, since he's with most of her family.

"I was just thinking," she says, as they get to her house, stop in front of the gate, "it's gonna be quiet here, with Matt and Dad - I don't know. It's not like Dad hasn't been in space for holidays before. But if you wanted to come over, or something, you could. I mean, I'd like if you did."

"Maybe," Keith says. "I'm pretty good on my own, though."

"Yeah," Pidge says, and just stands there, doesn't reach for her bassoon or open the gate or make any move to go inside at all. Keith's just opening his mouth to ask what's up when all of a sudden she sighs, frustrated, goes up on her toes, and presses a quick kiss to his lips.

"Uh."

"You're so _annoying_ ," she says., and kisses him again. He's still not exactly expecting it, but at least this time he's not too startled to react and lean into it a little. This is shaky ground, new ground, and Keith never backs down from a challenge but - "Stop thinking so much."

"Wow, you don't ever get to say that to anybody."

Pidge laughs and holds her hand out for her bassoon; Keith hands it over, still a little too blown away to do something smooth like drag her in for more kissing. More kissing would be good, though. Pidge leans up again and this time just kisses his cheek. 

"Don't spend the whole break alone, okay?"

"No promises," he says, just to make her roll her eyes, which she does, and it's even cuter when her cheeks are all pink. He's so completely fucked for her, shit. Pidge watches him for a second, like she's trying to read his mind (she never needs to try, usually picks up what he's thinking as easy as breathing), rolls her eyes again, and disappears down the path and inside. Keith stays frozen to the spot, working his brain through what just happened and what it _means_ , until his phone buzzes (it's Lance, panicking that Veronica might be involved in something bad because there's a Garrison bug in his room), and he manages to tear himself away and laugh the whole way home. 


End file.
